Discover the world’s most beautiful theatres. Walking into a great theatre can be mesmerising, walking into one of the world’s best can only be described as breath-taking, and you feel utterly transported.

The most incredible places are ones where stories and dance come to life, human discoveries of art and new pieces created. A place where childhood dreams come true and memories are made.

Theatres, old and modern are themselves works of art – from the unusual modern palaces to open-air masterpieces, we select what we believe are just five of the world’s most beautiful theatres, all of them sure to arouse.

World’s Most Beautiful Theatres

Palau de la Musica Catalana, Spain

What an art nouveau-styled masterpiece, with its tiled mosaics, stained glass, ironwork, and incredible marble sculptures which fill the venue. The Palau de la Música Catalana, built 1905-08 by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, a modernist architect.

Located in one of the most beautiful areas of Barcelona, the Sant Pere district. The only concert venue of this style listed as a World Heritage Site (UNESCO – Dec 1997).

Palau de la Musica Catalana’s structure is built around a central metal construction which is covered in a huge amount of glass, exploiting so much natural light making Montaner’s masterpiece I sparkling mirror box which bringing the whole building alive.

Fox Theatre, United States

The Fox Theatre, located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, near the Grand Circus Park Historic District, cries a time of Gatsby and incredible glamour. It is the largest surviving movie palace of the 1920s and the largest of the original Fox Theatres.

The unbelievable 5,048-seat theatre is the United States largest surviving movie palace of that period.

What we believe to be one of the most beautiful theatres in the world, its design by theatre architect C. Howard Crane, The Fox was fully restored in 1988. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 for its architecture. In 1997, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site.

The gala opening took place September 21, 1928, and featured the silent film Street Angel starring Janet Gaynor. The live show depicted a history of Detroit from its settlement in 1701 to the present. Productions included feature-length movies, shorts and newsreels, and performances by the 60-piece Fox Theatre Grand Orchestra, a 50-voice choir and a 32-member chorus line called the Tillerettes.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Greece

Step into Greek history at this breath-taking open-air theatre located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis of Athens, Greece. One of the oldest entertainment venues in the world, dating back to what is believed to be 174 AD. The building was completed in 161 AD and renovated in 1950

It was used as a venue for music concerts with a capacity of 5,000. Sadly it lasted intact until it was devastated and left in ruins in 267 AD by the Heruli.

The audience stands and the orchestra (stage) were restored using pentelic marble in the 1950s. Since then it has been the main venue of the Athens Festival (May to October each year), and features a variety of acclaimed Greek as well as International performances.

Just some of the artists who have performed include Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Montserrat Caballé, Alicia de Larrocha, the Bolshoi Ballets, Calexico, Maurice Béjart, Joaquín Cortés, Paco de Lucía, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, Goran Bregovic, Jean Michel Jarre, Ennio Morricone, Jethro Tull, Karolos Koun, Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hatzidakis, Nikos Koundouros, Patti Smith, Sivert Hoyem, Spiros Evangelatos, and Fairuz.

This truly is one of the world’s most beautiful theatres.

Grand Theatre, United Kingdom

One of the world’s most beautiful theatres has to be the Grand Theatre is a striking Victorian theatre in the iconic seaside town of Blackpool, in Lancashire, England.

The theatre was designed by theatre architect Frank Matcham and opened in 1894 after a construction period of just seven months, at a cost of £20,000 (Dec 1893 and Jul 1894).

The project was conceived and financed by local theatre manager Thomas Sergenson who had been using the site for several years to stage a circus. Matcham’s brief was to build Sergenson a theatre, the “prettiest theatre in the land”. No small request then!

Blackpool’s Grand is a Grade II* Listed Building. The theatre Matcham’s first to use an innovative ‘cantilever’ design to support the balcony’s, thereby allowing clear views of the stage from all parts of the auditorium.

Since 2006, it has also been known as the National Theatre of Variety.

Minack Theatre, United Kingdom

We’d tell you not to get so preoccupied by the views but at Minack Theatre it’s going to happen – GUARANTEED! Located on England’s southernmost tip in Cornwall, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

One of the world’s most famous outdoor theatres and the brainchild of Rowena Cade, who moved to Cornwall after the First World War and built a house for herself and her mother on land at Minack Point for £100.

In 1929, a local village group of players had staged Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a nearby meadow at Crean, repeating the production the next year.

Over the winter of 1931 and into 1932 Rowena and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, moved endless granite boulders and earth, creating the stage and the lower terraces of the theatre, in the same place as you see them today. Miss Cade offered the garden of her house as a suitable location, as it was beside the sea.